Hey y'all, I'm Danielle - the crazy behind this blog, where I share my creative life adventures as I survive life as a momma of 4 superheroes & wife to my best friend & fellow nerd. Life doesn't have to be perfect to be GREAT! You can reach me at danielle (at) busymomshelper.com - ABOUT -

This post is sponsored as part of a #SwifferFanatic Ambassadorship. All opinions & experiences are my own.

Have you moved a lot in your adult life? Since getting married, hubby and I have done four BIG moves – one between states! Every time it’s difficult – leaving friends and family, getting use to new areas and roads, plus all the hassle of packing and redecorating! But there’s one big advantage – a CLEAN SLATE! You get to start over with organizing and decorating your house, setting it up how you want and dream. Kind of fun, right? To help with the less exciting parts, here’s The 5 Best Moving Tips I’ve learned through the years.

Now, I’m not going to tell you how to pack, or the ideal boxes to use – those types of things vary too much between each person and their preferences. But these things are pretty universal, in my opinion, and great for more easy moving.

Tip #1: Use Color-Coded Stickers to Help Movers

Whether you have help from movers or friends, they’re not going to know what room is ‘Bobbies Bedroom’ or even what floor things are in. Heck, even YOU may forget – and although writing on the box is helpful to a point, it takes longer to write them, and to read it. Instead, take some really cheap stickers – either colored, or get white and use markers to color them.

For multi-story homes, pick a color for each floor. I did RED for the main floor because it’s like ‘STOP at this floor’. The 2nd floor was Green for ‘Good go GO Upstairs’. Then a 2nd sticker was on the box, matching a BIG sticker outside each room….

Then it’s just an easy glance to know where each box goes!

Tip #2: Clean the floors AFTER moving everything

Since footprints, dirt from boxes or even hair and fluff from pets or couches will still be getting on the floor, wait until everything’s cleared out, THEN give the floors a good cleaning! For the people moving INTO our old house, I wanted it super clean for them but didn’t have much time – so used my trusty Swiffer Sweeper&Vac to get the hair and fluff, then the Swiffer WetJet to give it a clean shine and get the last of that dirt. After we got into our new house, it just took a tiny bit to get our new wood floors shining after all the mover footprints!

Tip #3: Add Felt to Furniture Feet Before Moving

Your movers come to take your sofa out, only to leave a nice new scratch on the floor for your home buyers. Oops! Best to add the felt before things are moved, to protect the floors so the new owners can enjoy their new home in as best condition as possible.

You also don’t want to wait until your piano gets put on your shiny new wood floors to put on the felt pads, since just one little nudge could leave a permanent scratch. Same goes for tables, chairs, couches, etc. that will be on scratch-able floors. Put the felt pads on before bringing them in to make sure they’re secure, and to make certain your new floor is protected.

Tip #4: Quick Fixes with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

Before handing over keys to the new owners, clean up random scuffs and marks along the floors, base boards and such with a Magic Eraser for an extra good CLEAN SLATE. Also go around in YOUR new place to erase any marks – you want it as shiny and new as possible, right?

Tip #5: Leave Your Buyers a Thoughtful Gift

Even if it’s just a cute ‘home’ keychain for the house keys as you turn them over, it will really make them feel special that you took a moment for a quick extra thought for them. At our last home, we even left our buyers a whole Swiffer Green Box (thank you Swiffer!) to help them with their own clean slate, as well as a watering can for the window flowers. It’s the little things that count!

What are YOUR best moving tips?

I’m a Swiffer Fanatic, and as such this post is sponsored. However, all opinions are 100% mine alone.

Do you like saving money? Of course you do! One great way to do this is by buying generic brands for certain things, which is smart. However, you also like having a clean house with as little effort (and cost) as possible, right? Me, too! So let’s find out if store brands REALLY work as well as Swiffer pads….

I couldn’t fairly do this test without showing my floor BEFORE the cleaning – yes, I have two big dogs, so there’s dog hair all over the pretty wood. That’s my life – and one of the big reasons I need to regularly use my Swiffer sweeper (to get the hair up) and Swiffer WetJet to mop up any dirt, and paw prints. I didn’t do any prepping other than a strip of taping off two areas of the same size and ‘yuck’ level….

Here are our first contenders in this competition – the store brand on the left, and a Swiffer Sweeper pad on the right. You sweep before mopping, remember, so that’s why we’re doing this first. Using both in the same motion and the same square area, here’s what they each picked up….

Lots more hair – and dirt – on the Swiffer one. One reason for this? The Swiffer pad has a special addition to it that helps attract the debris, so they don’t just fall off. To test this out, I held each a little above the floor and gave it a little shake – not harsh, just a bump….

Lots more hair fell off the store brand 🙁 I think it’s safe to say Swiffer won this round! But what about the WetJet? Let’s go onto our second and final round, again with the store brand on the left and Swiffer on the right.

After mopping each area with the same cleaner and motions, this is what’s left on each pad……..

Now look at that picture again….the top picture is after each did the same amount of area. Then the bottom picture is me taking the Swiffer pad over the store brand’s area again – looks like the store brand missed a lot more dirt!

And the winner is – Swiffer pads!

Sorry store brands, you miss out on this one. To get the same result, I tested and would have to use 2-3 store brand pads to get close to the same result as Swiffer. The price is already so close between the two, this makes it much more budget-friendly (and cleaning friendly!) to use Swiffer. Guess this is one area where I’ll always go with Swiffer than the store brand!

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As part of the Swiffer Ambassador Program, this trip was provided at no cost to me. All opinions are my own. #SwifferFanatic #RealCleanRealFast

I had no idea what to expect this past week on this trip to Cincinnati, Ohio & Swiffer Ambassador Event! Was it going to be full of classes and note-taking? Just networking with the other ambassadors? I was thrilled that it was a great mix of everything, plus plenty of happy surprises!

I’ll admit, I was nervous when I learned we were going to visit Cincinnati – what in the world could be awesome about that city? I really loved it, though, especially as we got a private tour all around to learn more about it and see some truly beautiful sites! I really enjoyed the combination of old and new – from monuments and parks, performance centers (music is HUGE here) and museums, to a vast variety of down-right amazing food options.

I especially loved Fountain Park – here’s a ‘by day’ and ‘by night’ picture. At night it changes colors and is really beautiful. On Tuesday night me and fellow bloggers Our Three Peas and The Ugly Duckling House enjoyed the patio of a pub in the square and listened to the music they had playing. The weather was even perfect!

The Ohio river runs right through and had amazing views – lots of greenery and bright blue skies to offset the huge buildings of the city.

They roomed us at the 21C Museum Hotel in Cincinnati, and at first I thought the idea of having a museum mixed with hotel was awkward – but ended up really loving it. The staff was AMAZING – and that’s no exaggeration! So helpful, knowledgeable about the area, and really wanted to just be happy and make your day better. The rooms were impressive – with a GINORMOUS bed all to myself. I could lay ‘starfish’ on it and not quite touch any edges. Plenty of desk space for working, and artistic touches throughout – like the random tiles with things like a nose, ear, or mouth in the bathroom. I told hubby I’d love to bring him here.

Wondering about the large yellow penguins? The hotel has TONS of them all over, and people have fun moving them around. Some days I was greeted by one outside my hotel room, another day I enjoyed an elevator ride with the fun companion. The art museum, open 24 hours, was fun – my favorite was the ‘healing tiles’, shown in this photo near the bottom. The ’tiles’ spread as you walk across, then heal back to how they were.

Y’all know I love good food – like a LOT! The Swiffer team didn’t disappoint, treating us to beautiful views and tasty offerings at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse the first night – with a beautiful view with a RAINBOW after a slight downpour.

For dinner our last night, they really spoiled us by going to the highest ranking steakhouse in Ohio – Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse! Even if I didn’t already want to return for more site-seeing and such of Cincinnati, this restaurant was enough to bring me back. Such a beautiful, elegant atmosphere with top-knotch, attentive staff and AMAZING food – seriously, I can’t praise the deliciousness enough! Their prices are higher than I’d normally spend – but if you can, maybe for a special occasion or something – it’s totally worth it. My mouth is watering just remembering the filet mignon I enjoyed.

During the ambassador event, we got a personal tour of the P&G (Proctor & Gamble, if you weren’t sure) archives – I had no idea the history of this great company, or the neat ways one little change or discovering led to many other products we use today. Starting as a small candle and soap company and growing into this HUGE empire just blows me away! And yes, those heads of Proctor and Gamble are made of wax 🙂 And did you know they invented soap operas – it was a way to advertise their soaps!

At P&G headquarters, we learned a lot of the science behind the Swiffer products – what makes them work so well, changes they’ve made over the years to really make them the best on the market, and even did a couple ‘science experiments’ testing them out! At home my hubby was trying out the Swiffer Sweeper against our dogs’ hair problem – it definitely works to attract it well, as you can see!

I’m so glad I was selected to be a Swiffer Ambassador and attend this fun trip – and look forward to sharing my love of Swiffer and many more fun things with y’all over the coming year!